Republic and Right-Wing Politics in Argentina: Republican Traditions and Democracy. From UCEDÉ to PRO

Abstract

This chapter analyses the presence of the concept of "the republic" and of republican traditions in the legitimation strategies followed by right-wing political-party elites in Argentina since the democratic transition that began in 1983. The first sec- tion summarises how, in Argentina, the conceptual history of the "republic" conceptual history is closely intertwined with key moments of its political history: the May Revolution of 1810, the process of national organisation between 1853 and 1880, and the emergence of national popular movements, Radicalism and Peronism, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The second section compares the cases of UCEDÉ and PRO, located in the centre-right in the ideological geometric spectrum, which held and still holds, electoral and cultural relevance in the Argentine democracy. The last section provides an answer to the following question: why have right-wing political forces made "the republic" the pillar of their critiques against Alfonsinism (1983-1989) and Kirchnerism (2003-2015), two vernacular versions of social democracy and left-wing populism?.